Increase in middle classes taking dangerous legal drugs

Legal high gurus have told that legal highs are increasingly being taken by professionals and middle classes

Brother and sister Jacob and Jayne Ideala of legal high suppliers Ideal in Newcastle

Legal highs like those that hospitalised three North youngsters are increasingly taken by the middle classes, it has been claimed.

Last month, three 15-year-old victims began vomiting blood after taking the substance known as Clockwork Orange Herbal Incense.

But last night legal high gurus Jayne and Jacob Ideala said far from being exclusively bought by youngsters, middle class customers take the legal drugs.

The pair also claimed that those previously addicted to hard drugs move on to the legal highs while trying to kick their habits.

No one under the age of 18 is allowed in their shop, called Ideala, in Newgate Street Shopping Centre, in Newcastle, and they say they wouldn’t sell Clockwork Orange to anyone who was a newcomer to legal highs.

“On a scale of one to ten, this is 8.9. It is a strong one,” said Jacob, 27.

“We sell around 20 herbal blends, powders and pills. But, if we don’t know the customer, we ask various questions before we sell. We try to educate people on legal highs, but we would never give someone Clockwork Orange who wasn’t used to it.”

The couple also sell ready made legal highs for customers to smoke. Jacob creates a range of blends and in the Jacob 420 Experience, sold for £4.50, he will often use Clockwork Orange. A one gramme neat packet costs £10.

Jayne and Jacob, from Jesmond, Newcastle, were both drug addicts and grew up in a home with an alcoholic mother. The pair managed to wean themselves off drugs, but now take legal highs.

“Everything we sell we try first,” said Jayne. “We have to see what they do so we can advise people on what to expect, if it’s for them and there are no side effects.

“Clockwork Orange makes you feel relaxed, elated and makes things slow down. It helps you get through the day.

“We have all sorts of people who come to our shop, from psychiatrists, psychologists and accountants. They come from all walks of life.

“We have even had crackheads who have got themselves off hard drugs and on to legal highs. One bloke was on cannabis and then went on to legal highs and then got off that.

“People should be more educated on these things.”

But the brother and sister team say they have heard on the grapevine that customers have been feeling sick after buying Clockwork Orange in clear packets and not in its branded sachet.

“We think some unscrupulous sellers have been mixing it with something else to make more money on it,” said Jayne, 25.

“Why else would something that comes in a sealed, branded packet be sold in a clear plastic bag?

“None of our customers has been ill with it, but they tell us that they have friends who have had symptoms similar to these three in Blyth and they have bought it from elsewhere across the region.”

The new “herbal blend” was released for sale after similar substances such as Black Mamba and Mexxy were banned and classified as Class B drugs in February.

The alarm was raised on April 20 after the three teenagers began vomiting blood after experimenting with the substance at a house in Blyth, Northumberland.

Paramedics were called after the boy and two girls became ill at around 5.30pm. They were taken to hospital where medics kept them under observation before allowing them home.

The couple have run their shop for omore than three years and have recently employed a bouncer as Jayne has been threatened with violence after refusing to sell to certain people.

“We get busy on lunchtimes as people come in during their lunch hours,” said Jayne.

Jacob added: “Give it a few months and Clockwork Orange will be banned. But there will be an alternative as soon as it’s gone.”

Backing the theory that legal highs are being taken by professionals, Simon Thomas, professor of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics at Newcastle University, said: “Legal highs are not confined to teenagers, but they are taken by people of all ages from all walks of life.

“In some cases some people would be reticent to break the law but willing to take these substances.

“I acknowledge the fact that these legal highs are taken by teenagers to older people from a range of backgrounds.”

Police issued a warning about the dangers of so-called legal high drugs, saying they can be as dangerous as banned substances.

A Northumbria Police spokesman: “The use of legal high drugs is not safe and can kill or have a devastating impact on people’s health. These substances often contain potentially dangerous chemicals and are not intended for human consumption.

“Anyone who misuses drugs, prescribed or non-prescribed, is putting their life at risk and people should also be aware that this risk is significantly increased if mixed with alcohol.”

Legal highs have led to a number of people being hospitalised over recent months in the North.

A substance called Annihilation, which is sold as pot pourri, caused two teens to become ill in Washington and North Tyneside last year.

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